History Main / HiroshimaAsAUnitOfMeasure

*** Most geologists get a little tired of this. Since the energy of earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and bolide impacts is primarily transmitted into the ground as compressional and shear waves or lifts ejecta into the air. The actual destructive effects of these phenomenon are far less then detonating some imaginary bomb that contains the same amount of kinetic energy, since that energy is released mostly as gamma rays that directly heat the atmosphere causing an explosion as the air expands to cool itself. The total kinetic energy released is not equivalent to the actual effects of the release. Basically detonating a 1 megaton bomb will cause far more damage to human structures then a 1 megaton volcanic eruption or a 100 megaton earthquake, even when alot of the blast's kinetic energy is lost to space and the upper atmosphere.

* ''{{Futurama}}'' on one occassion used "megafonzies" to measure "coolness".

* Celestials in ''OrderOfTheStick'' measure evil in [[ThoseWackyNazis kilonazis]], with pertinent cases compared to a hypothetical offspring of [[LordOfTheRings Sauron]] and [[OneHundredOneDalmatians Cruella Devil]]

---> Grobnar: No one really knows how big the Wendersnaven are. They could be thousands of Khelgars high!
--->Khelgar Ironfist: What did I say 'bout usin' me as a unit of measurement?!
--->Grobnar: Er, right, several Neeshkas high.

* Faye in [[http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=702 this]] installment of ''QuestionableContent'' claims to be a unit of measurement, but the formula is rather complex.

* [[http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=702 'Fayes']] from QuestionableContent

** Hint: You're never farther than 107 miles from a [[http://www.weathersealed.com/2009/09/22/where-the-buffalo-roamed/ McDonald's]]

** [[TheOtherWiki TOW]] also uses [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsar_Bomba Tsar Bombas]] to measure the eruptive power of the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krakatoa the Krakatoa eruption]]. (Hint: 1 Tsar Bomba = 3125 Hiroshima bombs, and 4 Tsar Bombas = the Krakatoa eruption)

** [[TheOtherWiki TOW]] also uses [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsar_Bomba Tsar Bombas]] to measure the eruptive power of the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krakatoa the Krakatoa eruption]]. (Hint: 1 Tsar Bomba = 3125 Hiroshima bombs)

*** under 40km in Germany! [[http://www.mcdonalds.de/metanavigation/mcfinder/mcfinder.cfm source]]

* A children's book this troper owns called the ''I Wonder Why Encyclopedia'' occasionally measures weight in terms of small cars despite also giving actual units and somehow deciding that cars weigh exactly one ton.

* When the fanbase compared the size of SuperSmashBrosMelee's "Final Destination" stage to that of [[SuperSmashBrosBrawl Brawl,]] someone had the idea to use a ''character'', cloned and stood end-to-end, as a unit of measurement. The result? Melee's was "thirteen-and-a-half Falcons long". Brawl's was thirteen. From what this troper remembered there was another attempt to use [[{{Metroid}} Samus Aran]] as a unit of height.
** Shouldn't Fox be the unit for measuring Final Destination?

* In ''America (The Book),'' the "media value" of a celebrity trial is measured in "Buttafuocos". The number of these units is calculated with a reference table and tells a media outlet just how much media coverage the trial should get.

-> ''No, they are extremely weak. The total energy collected by radio astronomers over the history of radio astronomy amounts to about the energy required for a mosquito to make one push-up!''
-->--Dr. John Simonetti of the [[http://www.phys.vt.edu/~jhs/faq/quasars.html#q11 Department of Physics at Virginia Tech]]

->''"This, recruits, is a twenty-kilo ferrous slug. Feel the weight! Every five seconds, the main gun of an ''Everest''-class dreadnought accelerates one to one-point-three percent of light-speed. It impacts with the force of a thirty-eight kiloton bomb--that is three times the yield of the city-buster dropped on Hiroshima back on Earth! That means '''SIR ISSAC NEWTON IS THE DEADLIEST SON OF A BITCH IN SPACE!'''" ''
-->'''--Gunnery Sergeant''', ''MassEffect2''

* In [[{{Eagleland}} America]][[YuGiOhTheAbridgedSeries !]], many people will emphasize how small or remote a town is by listing the miles to nearest Wal-Mart, [=McDonald's=], major grocery store, or multiplex.

--><Ixnorp[Regenerating]> I think I've found an excellent unit of size measurement. It's the 'I could kill you and hide your body in it' unit. People usually become very quiet after you say, "yea, I could kill you and 3 other people and hide the bodies in this"

--->'''Narrator''': "In order to transmit the same amount of information on paper, they would have to arrange for a 747 cargo freighter packed with telephone books and encyclopedias to power-dive into their unit every couple of minutes, forever."

* The movie ''{{Film/Armageddon}}'' uses this trope while describing the size of the asteroid.

* For height, the preferred unit in the [=US=] is the Empire State Building. The Eiffel Tower is also used fairly often. For geologic height, it's Mt Everests.

-->'''Coffey:''' The [=MIRV=] is a tactical nuke. Uh, fifty kilotons, nominal yield, say... five times Hiroshima.

<<|MoreLikeAFootnoteThanAnythingElse|>>

Basically, any unit of measure that equates to something extreme in that property, but is still rather vague and hard to comprehend since the average person doesn't know what that ''is'' off the top of his or her head.

->''This, recruits, is a twenty-kilo ferrous slug. Feel the weight! Every five seconds, the main gun of an ''Everest''-class dreadnought accelerates one to one-point-three percent of light-speed. It impacts with the force of a thirty-eight kiloton bomb—that is three times the yield of the city-buster dropped on Hiroshima back on Earth! That means '''SIR ISSAC NEWTON IS THE DEADLIEST SON OF A BITCH IN SPACE!''' ''
-->'''Gunnery Sergeant''', ''MassEffect2''

->''This, gentlemen, is a twenty kilo ferrous slug. Feel the weight! The main gun on an Everest-class dreadnought accelerates one to one-point-one percent of the speed of light. It impacts with the force of a thirty-eight kiloton nuclear bomb - that is three times the size of the city buster dropped on Hiroshima back in the 20th! That means '''SIR ISSAC NEWTON IS THE DEADLIEST SON OF A BITCH IN SPACE!''' ''
-->'''Gunnery Sergeant''', ''MassEffect 2''